Property Tax Limitation in Washington State
Paul Guppy, Vice President for Research
, August, 2003In recent years Washington voters have approved three popular measures to ease the growth of the property tax burden government places on citizens. Each measure set progressively more stringent limitations on how much state and local elected officials could increase the basic property tax each year. The relatively easy passage of these measures indicates public support for limiting property taxes increases has remained stable over time.
Smart Growth and Housing Affordability: Evidence from Washington State
Samuel R. Staley, Ph.D & Leonard C. Gilroy, AICP, Reason Public Policy Institute
, April, 2003Growth management has come to the forefront of public-policy debate at the state and local level. Concerned about the effects of both population and economic growth on their environment, citizens and their elected officials are struggling for ways to identify and mitigate the problems associated with new homes and the demand for shopping malls and office development that inevitably follows. New building growth, which usually occurs on the urban periphery, has laid the political foundation for a growing movement to restrict and further control the pace and pattern of land development. Many growth-management advocates argue that state and local land-use planning should actively shape the built environment for local citizens through zoning and various forms of development control.